While the average American reads less than two hours each week, he watches T.V. 15-20 hours each week--that’s about an 8-1 ratio. Does anyone believe that T.V. is eight times more valuable than reading?! If you truly want to read more, you must control your T.V. habits. You may want to unsubscribe to cable T.V. or banish the T.V. from your bedroom or read 30 minutes each day before you pounce on the remote. Author Roald Dahl pleads with us:
Please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away.
And in its place you can install,
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Cathy and I recently finished reading Susan Howatch’s novel, Absolute Truths. Two of the primary characters are clergymen who are antagonists throughout the novel. One is liberal, the other is conservative. One was educated at Oxford, the other at a lesser college. One had an affair. The other preached regularly against immorality. But they both shared the same mentor, Jon Darrow.
One evening the two men coincidentally arrive at Darrow’s door at the same time. During the following difficult conversation between the three of them, Darrow expressed a desire that they know each other better: I know so much about you both. I know not only about all your difficulties but about how hard you’ve worked to overcome them. You look at each other and see only your faults, but I look at you in the light of my special knowledge and find I can overlook those faults because I know your virtues are far more important. How impressed you would be with each other if you knew what I knew! What heroes you would be in each other's eyes! As we read this book we were reminded again and again that we don’t know others very well. Our adversaries are never as foul or feeble as we think they are. Through reading this novel I was able to release a judgmental attitude that I have carried for a long time.
Though we all need some occasional fluff, easy reading shouldn’t be the staple of our diet. Compare a Danielle Steele novel with a Howatch novel. A Steele novel has more twists and turns than an episode of Fox’s “24”. Though you may be entertained, how have you benefited? Have you gained any insights into how to love your mate? how to direct your children? how to view your enemy? how to invest your life? You may be tempted to quit reading most good novels in the first 100-150 pages because they slowly lay the ground work for their characters and plot. One of the reasons that we don’t read more and better literature may simply be that we are lazy.
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3 comments:
but it's so much easier to watch TV at the end of the long day...but then again, just about anything worth having requires work in the end.
I have to say that my experience in college of reading books and writing has really helped me in many aspects of my professional and personal life, even though these studies had nothing directly to do with my line of work.
It's unfortunate that most of society seems to think that material that does not 'directly' apply to one's job is worth very little.
Mark Twain: "The literate man who doesn't read has no advantage over the literate man."
Homer Simpson: "TV gives so much and asks so little in return."
That should have read: the literate man who doesn't read has no advantage over the ILLITERATE man
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